Archive for October, 2015

So, last week, I wrote about the Zuiderzeewerken, which gave birth to the province Flevoland. But not only that. The Zuiderzeewerken had as their goal to create more land for agricultural use, and to “tame” the Zuiderzee, the part of the Noordzee (North Sea) that protruded well into the Dutch inland. Another goal, which was pursued already centuries before the proposal…

Every week, we receive the local newspaper filled with articles about local people and events as well as ads for local businesses. One of my favorite sections in this newspaper is the personal ads or advertenties because there is always something funny or interesting to read. To start, the ads are limited in the words they…

When you hear the Dutch “ui”, you might think about the sound that some words have, such as buis, huis, or sluizen. This post is about something else, however. If you want to know more about the sound, you can find a great post on this by my dear colleague Karoly. Other than the “ui” sound, ui itself also means something…

The province of Flevoland has not always existed. Not only in its name and demarcation – no, the actual land did not exist. It came into existence as the last of the twelve Dutch provincies. The northern Noordoostpolder (the top red part of the province in the map below) was added to the already existing land. The lower two parts…

If you are learning Dutch at the moment, you are undoubtedly trying to pronounce the words too – and one thing I found many people find very difficult is the pronounciation of the letter G in most cases. Now, I am referring to the Algemeen Beschaafd Nederlands (ABN), in which the G is not soft.…